


Making an Impact

by RidetheRain



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, God they are cute together, Gymboy Link, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Love at First Sight, Oblivious Zelda, Their friends are way smarter than they are, Title might be a joke in poor taste, Zelda is in Software, oblivious Link
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:41:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26038099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RidetheRain/pseuds/RidetheRain
Summary: Zelda watches out the window from her office as the gym across the street switches to outdoor drills.Link watches the group of co-workers who take up the whole street wandering around on their breaks.One of them has to give in an ask the other out right?
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	1. The Gym Across the Street

**Author's Note:**

> This can be whatever Zelda and Link you like. I like BOTW or Twilight, but that's me.

'Zel, do you have any markers for the whiteboard?' Keo called from inside a conference room.

'Yes! I have some right here. Do you need multiple colors?' Zelda picked up three of the brightly colored markers off the top left corner of her desk and handed them to Keo without waiting for a response. She invited herself into the room and took in the barely visible markings on the large whiteboard wall and full-capacity room. She frowned and backed out of the room again with a little huff.

'Sorry,' Keo said quietly as she walked past 'You know we need bigger conference rooms.'

Zelda gave him a half-smile and said she was on it. Keo closed the door and Zelda slumped back into her chair before straightening back up. She was so happy to have this job where people were making a real difference. Her father was the owner of this small technology company and Zelda had been working for him for years ever since he found the clever people, then just students, that designed a machine that could reliably create organs for transplant without the danger of rejection. It was revolutionary and Zelda was inspired just being a part of it all. But after her 'internship' was over, her father moved her to office manager. It was where he started and moved his way up to business strategy and eventually moving into buying a new startup every few years. He wanted her to be just as successful as he was and to find the group of students with a million-dollar idea that they couldn't afford to actually try.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Zelda quickly jotted down some reminders to look into a few more conference rooms and to order another box of whiteboard markers. She doodled a quick cross-cut sketch of a bone showing the marrow inside. She quickly covered it with a sticky note when she heard a door click, but it was just Keo again leading the group of designers out of the room. Zelda popped into the room for a minute and took a picture of the whiteboard which was now covered thickly with dark lines showing the same sketch she had just drawn. She then picked up the eraser and made a show of cleaning the board with a loud tut. She would pour over the picture later and add detail to her own drawing.

'Zelda!' Her father called from a doorway down the hall. 'Come in here, please.'

He immediately backed into his office and didn't wait to see if she heard him call or even if she was nearby. She took her time cleaning the board and grabbed two of the three markers she had lent to Keo. She placed them on her desk in the top left corner and slowly worked her way to her father's office. 

'Zelda,' her father said tightly, 'please close the door.'

Zelda looked around quickly and saw that they were alone. She closed the door as quietly as possible and waited politely by the guest chair that she had selected for this office. It was a nice deep red and had adjustable lumbar support. It was very ergonomic, but a little ugly and did not match the rest of the room. The corners of her mouth turned up very slightly at the thought.

'Is it so hard to put a little urgency into your daily tasks? You need to take this job seriously! Your inexperience is obvious to everyone without also showing off your laziness. I hope that no one saw you loitering around for no reason.' He wiped his hand down the front of his face and glanced at her. 'Zelda, you need to be wearing clothing more appropriate for this office. I know it is casual with all these techies, but you are a manager and are expected to at least have a blazer on. This cardigan is completely inappropriate.' He gestured to the pale yellow cardigan that she wore over a typical navy office dress. 

'Nevermind, I brought you here to tell you that I want you to come to tomorrow's strategy meeting. It's all day and we'll be going through the company five-year plan. I'll expect a report on insights you gained by Monday. Watch for bad assumptions, goals that are too high or too low, and for people that have bad expectations for their teams.'

Zelda nodded along and jotted down some notes into her ever-present notebook and gave her father one last nod - with eye contact and a slight frown.

'That's my girl.' He said proudly and waved her out.

_ Thump _ . A pile of packages was unceremoniously dumped onto Zelda's desk. Something crunched. 

'Hey, Zel! You weren't here when the mail came around again! You own me one break-time walk!' Purah was always working to get Zelda out of the office and looked for every silly excuse. She was the software lead and bullied everyone into having as much work-life balance as possible while still expecting the output of two people. It would be horrible if she wasn't so damn likable.

'Purah, it's lunchtime anyway.' Zelda said with a wane smile. She had been working on a list of attendees for the strategy tomorrow and some initial hypotheses about who would think what. Her father didn't care for her 'influencing her opinions' with predictions, but it was part of the scientific process and Zelda thought that might as well be a good enough reason to do it. 

‘Come on Zellie, we’re going for a walk first and then you can come back here and have your boring lunch with boring food. I won’t make you come to get Tai food with us.’

Purah was all but pushing her out the door. She tugged on the sleeve of Zelda’s cardigan saying ‘How can you wear this! It’s a million degrees outside. Those poor boys at the gym!’

Zelda ignored her friend’s mention of the gym across the street. Recently all the jocks that worked out during the day were outside lifting weights and running ladders up and down the sidewalk. She surreptitiously glanced down the hall to her father’s door and, seeing it was shut, pulled off the cardigan to display her lightly toned arms. This job required more lifting of boxes than she had expected at the beginning of her tenure. She quickly rushed out the door and down the dark stairwell as Purah hurried to keep up. 

They burst out of the door and into the sunlight for the first time all day and Zelda couldn’t help but spread her arms out and bask in the hot sun. It was a glorious day. She usually spent the whole day in the building and even her prime desk location next to the windows didn’t let all this light in. It was beautiful.

‘Careful there Zel-el-bell. If anyone sees you this happy, they’ll think I was experimenting on you!’ Purah laughed at her own joke then pulled Zelda along toward the gym with outdoor workouts. They slowed down when they got to the shaded trees across the street and inspected the odd choice of locations for a gym.

‘Don’t they know it’s a billion degrees out!’ Purah said again.

‘I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation, Purah. Maybe the A/C is broken.’

‘Maybe they keep all the weak ones inside and this is their final trial before becoming bros!’ She was getting louder.

‘Or, it’s a marketing tactic…’ Zelda considered this thought more thoroughly. This might be something her father would enjoy hearing about. He liked his insights.

‘Maybe!’ Purah’s voice was now loud enough to be heard by some of the guys working out. ‘Maybe they were stealing the equipment and it was too heavy so they started practicing!’

A few guys turned to look at them both with curiosity. ‘You suck’ Zelda said quietly avoiding eye contact with the blue-eyed guy lifting more weights than she thought a normal person would ever need to lift. 

Zelda all but dragged Purah further down the street to a coffee shop. ‘What is wrong with you! Venti Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher!’ She snapped at Purah and the barista. Then she colored a deep violet red. ‘Oh my gosh I am so sorry!’ She said to the barista. ‘I was just… I didn’t mean to… yell…’ she trailed off in embarrassment.

The barista gave her a sideways customer service smile and asked for a name. ‘Zelda’ she said meekly and turned fully to glare at only Purah who was also bright red with suppressed laughter.

Purah gave some long orders for a custom drink and Zelda’s anger cooled as they waited in silence for their drinks.

‘Mafelda! Venti Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher!’ Zelda resumed glaring at Purah as she went up to get the drink for “Mafelda”. 

With their drinks in hand they began to walk more slowly back towards the office.

‘So,’ Purah started ‘I need your help for the strategy meeting that I’m not supposed to think is happening tomorrow even though my calendar is blocked for the whole day and why else would my whole calendar be blocked?’

Zelda hummed in not-quite-agreement. 

‘I need us to have a lunch break that is not a “working lunch” can you look up some article somewhere for me to dangle tomorrow. Everyone will jump on it since we are so  _ into science _ .’

She made a rude gesture at that. A man walking past them did a small double take. 

‘I’ll find something,’ Zelda said. ‘I’m sure there is an article somewhere saying that proper breaks are good for cognitive ability or some such. I want lunch tomorrow too.’

‘Hrumph! I don’t care about lunch! I want to look at the gym thieves again tomorrow!’

Zelda took a big sip to save herself the trial of answering Purah’s ridiculous theory. They popped across the street and were walking past the gym when Purah stopped and called to a guy in the mess of sweaty bodies and gym equipment. 

‘Groose! What are you doing here!’ This man was tall and ginger, but made up for it with the body of a swimmer. 

‘Purah, you haven’t grown.’ The man smiled down at both of them. ‘How have you been doing?’

‘Ah, I think you’re just still getting taller. Pretty soon you’re going to start scraping ceilings.’ Purah brushed past the short joke quickly. ‘What are you all doing outside? Don’t you know it’s hot out?’

‘Ah, the A/C broke and now we all got moved outside.’ Zelda tried not to smile, but she could feel the corners of her mouth turn up a little bit at that. He turned to Zelda with a big smile ‘Nice to meet you, I’m Groose. I’ll spare you the handshake today. I've been here an hour already.’

Zelda smiled politely and gave a little wave. ‘Nice to meet you as well Groose. I’m Zelda.’

‘I’ll be done here soon, would you ladies care for some lunch?’ He stared at Zelda as he asked without blinking.

‘Oh no,’ Zelda said. ‘I am already set for today. Thank you for your offer.’

He looked a little surprised and made some excuse. They turned to leave and Zelda saw blue-eyes nearby running agility exercises. His messy hair was puffed out from the heat and sweat. He looked ridiculous and she definitely quirked into half a smile at the sight. He looked up just at that moment and offered a half smile back. 

  
  
  
  



	2. Porcelain

Today was not Link’s day. This morning he found out that the carton of milk had gone bad. After pouring it on the last of his cereal and he was out of bananas. It was just untenable. He was forced to swing by a coffee shop to buy a muffin since the croissants weren’t out yet. Today was a disaster waiting to happen.

He felt better after he ate. Which was good because then his gym had some weird electrical problem and told the line of guys waiting at the door to come back in a few hours. He would have blown his top completely. 

The gym was a mess and it smelled a little like burnt rubber. That was probably the flooring. The “electrical” problem looked more like a “fire” problem to Link, but who was he to say did or didn’t happen. It was a slightly shady gym in general with bars on the windows and not enough lighting. But it was cheap.

Instead, he shrugged and turned on his heel. He was going to start texting his coworkers for a shift this morning. He’d come back at lunchtime and hopefully get a workout in. He worked as a security guard for the local museum fellowship. He could usually find a shift that someone wanted to swap in one of the four main buildings that were open to the public. There were a few more dotted around the city that was for study and storage, but those tended to be harder to swap for. No one wanted to be around the tourists and Link had enough seniority to have ample non-tourist shifts for trade.

He found himself 30 minutes later with a baton and radio strapped to his belt. He was inside at least, but working in the freaking entomology section again. Staring at children getting grossed out by the little insects was almost not worth getting to the gym today. He surveyed the slow trickle of students on field trips and the handful of elderly with nothing better to do on a Thursday morning. 

The minutes ticked by and eventually, Link walked down the hall and tried to ignore anything that wasn’t the employee break room door.

Success.

He idled as long as possible getting a drink from the vending machine and sitting down at the rickety table. Teba was also hanging out in the break room and had the TV set to a racing channel.

‘Link! I didn’t think I was seeing you today. You never work Natural History. I thought I wouldn’t see you until I was on warehouse duty again.’

‘Yeah, I know. I don’t know what came over me taking it. They have me in entomology, too.’ Link sighed dramatically. ‘Have you been by the gym today? They closed it for the whole morning. I had to switch so I could get there around noonish.’

‘You should just apply for the research position already and be here all the time. No requirement for entomology visits and you have the background for animal research stuff. We can go to the gym together on lunch breaks! I was planning on going as well today so you’re in luck.’ Teba was constantly trying to get Link to apply for research positions at the museum. After a few tries, Link gave up on the idea of getting a job related to his degree in zoology. He had experience as a security guard and that was a much easier job to find.

‘Meh’ Link said. Teba huffed and walked out of the room.

Besides, he only worked enough to get by with his small shared apartment and careful food planning. He learned to cook specifically because the savings would cut him down one shift a week. His life was bliss and he found himself wondering why people spent all their time working and working and working. It was boggling. Link wandered back to his post with these thoughts still occupying his mind and absentmindedly broke up a fight between two children and admonished them to follow their teacher more closely - pointing at the harried-looking woman in a bright orange blazer. He looked hard at an old woman who was standing guiltily on the wrong side of a rope and she quickly slid back to the right side.

A hundred little corrections later - display shifts really were the worst - and he was free for the rest of the day. He met Teba in the breakroom collecting his stuff and they walked the three blocks back to the gym.

The gym was absolutely packed. It seemed like everyone and their brother had the same idea that Link did. The owner moved all the equipment outside and had them working in the parking lot and along the sidewalk. Some people were even working out on the little side street.

‘Uhhh.’ Link couldn’t decide if it was ok to leave after he just did a terrible shift in order to be here at this time. 

‘Come on’ Teba said brightly, ‘There are still machines open. Don’t be a snob. And look! Groose is here too.’

Link found himself dragged into the building to quickly change into his workout clothes. It still smelled like burnt rubber. Then subsequently dragged towards another coworker to start warming up in the heat of the day on the hot black asphalt. 

It was not worth the shift. Link was sticking to the as he pressed his legs into the heavy weights even with a shirt on. Thank god it wasn’t arm day today. He slowly bent his knees to let the weights drift towards him then held it for a second. Then back up. Maybe a machine is a bad idea. That might be why so many were open when he and Teba arrived. He gently pulled back until the machine clicked and the weights were set into place again.

‘Let’s do squats instead.’ Link said shortly. Teba nodded and went to go find an open squat station while Link cleaned up after himself. He pulled his shirt away from his back to let in whatever cool air might drift past and headed to Teba who was looking way too excited at the prospect of finding a station so soon. 

‘Why don’t you go first?’ Teba asked, ‘Someone left all this weight on and it’s over my limit.’

‘Give me a minute. I need a break.’ Link carefully didn’t gulp down his water no matter how much he wanted too. He also didn’t dump the water down his front as suddenly a bunch of guys were doing all around him. 

He looked at Teba in confusion and Teba snickered as he tipped his head to the office building across the street. Two women had just come out of the door and one was raising her arms to the sky as if she had never seen the sun before. Her white porcelain skin made him think that maybe he was right. The friend was looking on happily and talking. 

Link rolled his eyes. Everyone at this gym was an idiot. He stood up and moved to the weights to add another ten to each side. Teba followed and stood by as a spotter. The weights were heavy, but Link only planned on a few reps per set. He went down slowly and let himself relax into the strain before climbing back up. One. The girls were walking past now and he closed his eyes so he didn’t have to see the guys act like idiots. Two. 

‘Maybe! Maybe they were stealing the equipment and it was too heavy so they started practicing!’

That made Link look up. The shorter, happy friend was shouting and all the guys near here were staring. He tried not to laugh and went down for number three. At the top, he looked up again and saw the porcelain girl blushing and trying not to look at anyone. She was gorgeous. She was absolutely beautiful. She had very nice arms. She was dragging her friend down the street so he could see her straining and it was so distracting that he put the bar back on the rack and took a step back. 

‘Three?’ Teba said incredulously. ‘That’s not your max! Why are you only doing three?!’

‘That girl…’ Link said under his breath. ‘She’s… I’ll spot you. I don’t want to do squats anymore.’

Teba started pulling weights off the bar.

‘Need to cool off there friend?’ Teba teased, ‘Maybe you should dump your water all over yourself.’

He tittered in the background while Link tried to get his brain back in gear. 

‘Come on, you idiot. Help me get this thing set up.’ Teba was synching one side of weights back into place and Link hurried to match it on the other side.

He daydreamed through all of Teba’s sets while Teba slowly gave up teasing him in favor of working. Link was careful to steal glances back at the sidewalk where the women had disappeared down the street where Teba couldn’t see him.

They moved on to the ladders laid out on the sidewalk and began running patterns up and down. It was hard work in the heat and Link was finally able to sink into the high of exercise. He was sweating profusely and was trying to step into each box twice before moving to the next without falling over. His hair was starting to puff up in the heat and Link was grateful it was no longer sticking to the back of his neck. The ladder was tight work and he had to keep all his concentration down at his feet to keep from tripping.

‘Groose! What are you doing here?’ The friend’s voice jolted Link out of his focus and he took a wrong step and almost spilled onto the hard concrete. He caught himself with a few steps onto the side. The two were back and they were talking to Groose, the coworker Teba saw when they arrived. Link quickly moved to a different pattern where he could watch them and not fall over. Porcelain girl was smiling gently at something Groose was saying and the friend was gesturing wildly to the busy gym full of guys that were trying not to be obvious about their eavesdropping. Just like him.

Link quickly looked back down at his feet and started moving a little faster. He glanced up reflexively when he was near to the end of the row and locked eyes with porcelain girl who had been watching him. She was smiling in an amused sort of way. A little breeze picked up just the tips of her hair playfully and the golden hues shone brightly with the sun. He gave a little half-smile and then looked back down at his feet before he tripped again. When he turned around again she was across the street and nearly into the office building she had originally emerged from. 

‘Link,’ Teba’s tone implied this was not the first time he’d said Link’s name.

‘Huh,’ He said too quickly.

‘Is everything okay?’

‘Yeah! Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?’ Still too fast.

‘You’re a little out of it today.’ Teba paused. ‘They were pretty weren’t they?’

That got Link’s attention.

‘You’re married.’ Link tried to cover his agreement with as much deadpan as he could muster. 

‘You’re not. I’m helping.’ Teba’s teasing tone barely registered. ‘You’re hair is not helping. You look like you’ve been struck by lightning. But hey, maybe she’s into that. The tall one right?’

‘Yeah, the tall one.’ Link said miserably. He had forgotten about his hair. ‘She must have been laughing at me.’

‘Why don’t we come back tomorrow during lunch and show off your hair again.’ Teba was merciless, but Link latched onto that idea.

“Yes. I’ll come back tomorrow. Good idea.’ He started wracking his brain for tomorrow’s shift schedule. ‘I think Groose has a shift I can trade. I’ll ask him.’

Link turned and left a laughing Teba behind to go talk to Groose. The shifts were an easy swap and Groose admitted that he had been trying to pawn that shift off on someone else for a week now. It was Link’s lucky day.


End file.
